Backups fail after installing VIPRE Email Security

Modified on: Fri, 29 Dec, 2017 at 5:42 PM

PROBLEM

After installing VIPRE Email Security backups no longer complete

ENVIRONMENT

VIPRE Email Security 3.5 and under

All Supported Environments

SOLUTION

Files are being held open by the VIPRE Email Security services. This can be corrected by configuring your back software to start a cusotm script to stop the services at the beging of the backup cycle and call another script to restart the services when the back has completed.

Please download the build that is appropriate for your install of VIPRE Email Security

Click here (for versions prior to 2.0.1957)Click here (for version 2.0.1957 and after)Click here (if you are using Vipre Email Security for Exchange 2007 or 2010) version 3.5 or lower

If you are on version 3.6 or later you do not need the backup scripts at the VSAPI plugin that scans the Information store has been removed and is no longer supported by Microsoft Exchange.

More information on how the backup scripts work, taken from the ReadMe file.

Vipre Email Security for Exchange Backup Scripts version 1.0

July 24th, 2006

=======================================

* Background *---------------------------------------

With the release of Vipre Email Security for Exchange, we have had a handful of customers report to us problems with their backups after the installation of Vipre Email Security for Exchange.

Almost all of these issues occur when using Backup Exec to perform a mailbox-level backup while using Vipre Email Security for Exchange's Antivirus.

Some customers have reported backup problems who are NOT using Vipre Email Security for Exchange's AV, in which case we check to be sure the Vipre Email Security for Exchange temp directory is excluded from a file-level backup. Vipre Email Security for Exchange's "temp" folder is a temporary repository for messages currently being scanned.

Messages are written here as files when they are scanned and then removed very rapidly and you do NOT want this directory scanned by file-level antivirus or backed in any case.

One function of this script is to disable Vipre Email Security for Exchange's logging to reduce I/O usage on the server. This should help backups run smoother in all cases.

The second function is for customers using Vipre Email Security for Exchange's AV.

First, we want to stop antivirus scanning on messages that are being actively backed up.

Each message in the information store is assigned an antivirus "version" attribute to it. This attribute is a reflection of the antivirus definition version the message was last scanned with.

A message has this version checked any time it is opened or a background scan of the information store scans the message.

If the message has never been scanned and it does not have this attribute, it will be scanned by the current antivirus definitions and have a virus attribute written to it that reflects the antivirus definition version it was scanned with.

If a message has this attribute and it is opened or scanned by a background scan and the virus version attribute of the message is LESS than the current antivirus definition version then it will be scanned immediately using the newer virus definitions, and it will then be assigned a new definition version attribute based on the antivirus definition it was scanned with.

If the message is opened or scanned with a background scan and it has the antivirus version attribute but that attribute is equal to or higher than the current virus definitions, the message is NOT scanned by Vipre Email Security for Exchange's Antivirus engine.

In order to prevent a mailbox level backup from starting virus scans on each message that is touched, we will simply decrement the antivirus definition version the system uses to a "1", which will be lower than any antivirus attribute assigned to any message.

This will still allow *new* messages that lack a definition version completely to be scanned, but any message that has been scanned by the AV engine and assigned an antivirus attribute will not be scanned.

The script will also need to stop the Vipre Email Security for ExchangeUpdate service to prevent any Antivirus updates from changing this definition version which would accordingly cause any messages to be scanned again during the backup -- something we certainly don t want.

Once completed, the post script will simply turn logging back on (if it was on to begin with) and start the update service. It does not need to update the antivirus definition version number as this will be changed as soon as a new virus definition version is downloaded.

You will see 4 files -- ninja-prebackup.exe, ninja-postbackup.exe, ninja-prebackup.vbs, ninja-postbackup.vbs.

The executables are simply re-packaged VBS files. Apparently, Symantec Backup Exec only supports using .BAT and .EXE files for Pre and Post commands.

* ninja-prebackup.exe

modifies loggersettings.xml to set the logging level to 'None'. It is backed up to loggersettings.bak.

stops the Vipre Email Security for Exchange Update service

modifies the antivirus version registry key "Version" found under \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sunbelt Software\Messaging Ninja\VSAPI\ and sets it to 1.

creates ninja-prebackup.log in the Vipre Email Security for Exchange installation directory. This just contains a timestamp and basic information about what the script did.

creates an application event log entry of id 90 with source 'Ninja' which lets you know the script completed.

This file will need to be setup as a pre-command for your backup job. This was quite easy with Backup Exec 10.1.

1) Open up the properties of your batch job2) Select Pre/Post Commands under 'Settings'3) Paste in the exact directory and name of the file without quotes. I recommend placing it in your Vipre Email Security for Exchange installation folder. For example, the following line reads exactly what I have setup:C:\Program Files\Sunbelt Software\Vipre Email Security\ninja-prebackup.exe

* ninja-postbackup.exe

modifies loggersettings.xml to set the logging level back to what you had it set to previously.

starts the Vipre Email Security for Exchange Update Service

creates ninja-postbackup.log in the Vipre Email Security for Exchange installation directory. This just contains a timestamp and basic information about what the script did.

creates an application event log entry of id 90 with source 'Ninja' which lets you know the script completed.

As with the pre-backup command, set this up as a post-backup command, e.g.